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Nerina Lascelles

Dunmoochin Residency 2010 - 2012

The vision of the artist is to creatively explore new ways of being – individually, with one another and the land we inhabit. To expand and envision a larger picture of beauty, honour, balance, sustainability within humanity and the land.

As in many cultures of the past the artist intends to uplift and inspire his or her audience invoking perhaps, a sense of awe and wonder through depicting the ever present sacred.

In the past, inspiration for my work has derived from different cultures of the earth which may offer our own culture a glimpse of a different and perhaps more honourable and balanced way of being. As most of us can currently sense, a time of great change is currently occurring on our planet, in our society and in our personal lives. Personally and through my artistic practice, I have been inspired by the ‘sacred’ and ‘holy’ of other cultures as a tool to re-ignite a sense of the sacred my current life. Past exhibitions have been inspired by the culture and spirituality of countries including Indonesia, Tibet, India, Nepal and Japan.

Clouds veil the moon

now and again

giving rest to it's beholders - BASHO

My paintings are an outer reflection of my inner experience - and I invite you to share my inspiration, and hope that some of you may find a path to your own inspiration through your viewing. The paintings are a material object which depicts an image which arose from the invisible and which, at its highest function, will offer the viewer a doorway to their own invisible realm within

Lightening flash

flying toward the darkness

heron's voice - BASHO

More recently my paintings have been inspired by reading and contemplation of a series of Haiku poems by the Japanese masters. For each poem chosen, I endeavoured to extract the ‘essence’ and bring the inherent imagery to life through a visual interpretation. The haiku is an evocative Japanese verse, which embodies a direct intuitive penetration into nature, and life, which offers insight, joy and truth to readers. A simple verse encapsulates a multi-sensory experience of one’s environment. In the case of Zen Haiku, language becomes a painting, a drawing, a story, a song. Form and formless melt together, so that the poem is experienced, the reader may enter a timeless moment- a space of stillness or meditation. When contemplating the haiku, a deeper presence of life and nature maybe felt beneath the human mental and physical constructs of form.

From far and near

hearing the sounds of waterfalls

young leaves - BUSON

Much of my recent work has a strong Japanese influence. I'm heavily inspired by the element of reverence and sensitivity which the Japanese artists portrayed in their antique paintings, screens, kimonos etc... Having lived in 'leafy' Nillumbik for most of my life, I am keen to adopt and translate a similar sense of respect for this stunning natural environment. After having been lived a an artist in residence at Dunmoochin, one simply cannot help being influenced by the beauty and magic of the Australian bush which encouraged me to translate some of these Japanese haiku using imagery which is more local to this region; including red box and long leaf box eucalypts.